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The Longest Journey

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"Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where."

— Cortez

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The Longest Journey is the first game of the The Longest Journey Saga. It is a 1999 Adventure Game written by Ragnar Tørnquist and developed by the Norwegian company Funcom for Microsoft Windows. Famous for its expansive storyline, a lovable, Genre Savvy heroine, and flawless gameplay (as far as point-and-click gameplay goes), the game is commonly credited with resurrecting the Adventure Game genre after its crisis in the late '90s. In November 2014, The Longest Journey also received an iOS port.

April Ryan is an ordinary art student living in the Orwellian metropolis Newport and applying for the local Academy of Arts. She has her share of problems with her parents, insecurity about her future, and increasingly strange dreams, but she also has some great friends, a job, and a friendly landlady. Then a weird Cool Old Guy named Cortez appears and tells her that she is The Chosen One who has to Save Both Worlds — and then he sends her to that other world, Arcadia, she is supposed to save. As her familiar world crumbles around her, April has to dive deeper into the secrets of the universe, fulfill cryptic prophecies, bring down an Ancient Conspiracy or two, save the Guardian of the Balance, and ultimately restore the harmony between the Twin Worlds of Stark and Arcadia. And that all in less than two weeks.

Tropes found in the game:

Alice Allusion: When Cortez helps April travel to Arcadia for the first time, he deliberately invokes this imagery to her: "Why, Alice, I am sending you through the looking glass!"

Alien Geometries: The maze in Roper Klacks' castle has some fake perspectives. There is also a staircase at the background, which is revealed to be just a painting.

Almost Dead Guy: Flipper utters some final words to April when she meets him half-dead.

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Alphabet Soup Cans: Roper Klack is beaten by using a calculator, to prove that you can do math and he can't. Or at least, you can do it faster. Afterward, the mage gets sucked into the calculator, for reasons unexplained.

After all her numerous trials and sacrifices throughout TLJ, April is basically given heartfelt thanks... and then left to her own devices. She even admits as not knowing how to feel as she starts her trek "home".

Cerebus Syndrome: Initially the story does not take itself too seriously, being at some points an Affectionate Parody of fantasy stories and even campy and comedic at times, with lots of Lampshade Hanging. But the story starts to take a very dark turn when the Tyren army invades Marcuria and Emma is shot by the Vanguard.

Creator Cameo: Ragnar Tørnquist voices Marcus, a minor character near the start of the game.

Cruelty Is the Only Option: There are other things too, but special mention goes to Detective Minelli. First you poison him (or at least give him a severely upset stomach) to get him to move out of an area, then you steal his glass eye (he obviously becomes very panicked when you do this) and replace it with a plastic eye from a toy monkey (which he then puts in his eye socket). Other solutions involve conning your way around problems.

Diary: April keeps a diary throughout the game, which is an important source of her characterization. How she manages to update it even after being pulled into a parallel universe in just her underwear is never explained.

Didn't See That Coming: The ending reveals that April is actually supposed to get the Guardian to his destination, not become the Guardian herself.

Dismantled MacGuffin: The Stone Disc, the key to the Guardian's realm in the first game. Justified in the Back Story: the disc was originally kept at the Sentinel Enclave, ready for pickup by The Chosen One, but then the Vanguard tried to steal it. Afterwards, the Sentinels decided to break it up and hand the pieces over to the four magical peoples most motivated to keep it hidden (since most magical creatures would likely perish if the Twin Worlds were forcibly reunited).

Dramatic Gun Cock: The cop at the shuttle crash does this after April speaks with him and he sends her away.

Dream Intro: Subverted. While it looks like a dream, when April visits the same location in the waking world, she can see the traces of her actions from when she was "dreaming" about it at the start of the game. In other words, it was real from the start, she just didn't realize it then.

Drugs Are Bad: The fictitious drug "Rapture" comes up repeatedly, though it's not important to the story. Too many will really mess you up. Also referenced is the fictitious drug "Amathin".

Entertainingly Wrong: Captain Nebevay is tricked by April into leaving to checking on apple supplies below decks, despite noticing what pest is infecting them.

These are worms, all right — vicious, snarling wheat worms, driven mad by their hunger for a change of diet!

Fantastic Drug: "Rapture" and "Amathin". The effects are never explained in detail.

Framing Device: The game starts with an old woman named Lady Alvane being asked to tell a story to two children. Instead of the one they asked her, she tells them the story of April Ryan. At the end of the game, Lady Alvane finishes her story, and the children leave.

Game-Breaking Bug: Some actions have to be done in the exact right order, even if the game seems to accept any order. Usually, it's no big deal, except for one puzzle that doesn't allow disassembling a partly-assembled contraption. It requires to pull a rubber duck (that has to stay inflated) over a steel clamp and then tie a rope to the clamp. Since there's a time limit until the duck deflates, many players reverse the order: attach the rope to the clamp, then blow up the duck and attach it. But this way the game behaves as if there is no rope, and April can neither use the device nor untie the rope. The device is required to finish Chapter 2, but the mistake can be made early in Chapter 1. In other words, a player has to restart.note There seem to exist several different versions where the bug may or may not manifest. The build 142 sold at gog.com does have the bug.

Gentle Giant: Sleeping Q'aman. Not surprisingly, his official circus nickname is "The Gentle Giant."

There is a product called "Instant Heat" which is used to spike a guard's coffee to get him to move. From its description and the effects on the guard, it can be inferred that it is something akin to Viagra.

The Guards Must Be Crazy: In the space station, if a guard catches April, she runs away and the guard just returns to his post. The worst thing happens when the guard at the HQ catches you: he escorts you out, no matter how many times he caught you before. This same guard, when you disconnect the security camera, simply leaves his post to reconnect it instead of raising the alarm.

Guide Dang It!: One of the reasons this game was so well received was the lack of this trope. However, even then, a few puzzles may come off as unintuitive, namely the rubber ducky puzzle very early in the game.

HeelFace Turn: Gordon Halloway has one after his soul is reunited with his body.

It May Help You on Your Quest: Tobias gives you the Talisman of the Balance, and is quick to admit that aside from being magical, he has no idea what it does and doesn't really know how it will help, only that it's supposed to be given to April.

Keep It Foreign: In the Spanish version Cortez is not Hispanic, but rather a Frenchman named "Corthes".

I was out picking bones — uh, berries, for my stew, and flowers, yeeess, pretty flowers... Oh, I'm no one, no one at all, just a frail, old woman out picking booones- uh, berries, picking berries, for her stew so she can feed her prisoners — uh, guests, so she can fatten them up for... um, the long winter... I still need your help, plump pudd- um, nice pretty girl, [...] Help me home and I'll cook you... um, a nice stew! Yum, I'm getting hungry already *growl*... Oh, what have we here, this... "stew", isn't good enough to stuff yo— um, to serve, a guest as plump— as well built and deliciou— as honoured as you, my dear...

Magitek: The "statue-cum-phonebooths", as April calls them, are used as communication devices between different parts of the island. They can be rotated to configure which other statue they are listening/talking to.

Merged Reality: That's what the Vanguard are attempting to do; apparently, chances of failure don't bother them much.

Modern Stasis: The game is set 200 years in the future, yet, apart from the cyberpunkish aesthetics, there is little plot-relevant futuristic technology.

Moon Logic Puzzle: The infamous key on the subway tracks, which requires you to go out of your way to snoop around and solve seemingly inconsequential puzzles to amass a shopping list of random items and MacGyver most of them together into a bizarre contraption to retrieve it. And it won't even be obvious why you're going out of your way to get this random key unless you get far enough in the game.

There is also a "mystifying" machine by the hotel that acts as a Myst-esque puzzle.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: When traveling on Nebevay's ship, April first manages to divert the ship into dangerous waters with her magic talisman. Then, when she tries to recover the talisman after Nebeway takes it away from her, she hits the floorboard with the axe instead of the chest in which the talisman is locked away, which results in the ship sinking.

NPC Amnesia: April can chance her answers without fearing any backlash.

The scene with the Gribbler, although the jury is still out on whether it was played straight or as a mockery of the trope.

Disrupt the magic compass and prevent the ship's escape from a storm that even got the hardened crew shaking in their boots? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Superstitious Sailors: Played for Laughs with Captain Nebeway, who invents the craziest maritime superstitions on the spot that allegedly prevent him from signing a map delivery receipt — all to conceal the fact that he cannot actually read or write.

What Happened to the Mouse?: Near the end, after April escapes Venice, Emma and Charlie is never heard from again, except that Emma is alive. We don't get to know whether April finally got reunited with them or not. These questions are resolved in Dreamfall, though.

Worthless Yellow Rocks: If you try to gamble your gold ring in the cups game, the dealer will refuse and say that he only accepts iron coins.

Wretched Hive: Newport to varying degrees. Venice is quite nice, except for the sewage flowing in the canals. The Metro Square area looks like a typical Cyber Punk city. Then there is The City Narrows, Hope Street. You don't want to go there unless really needed.

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